February 28th, 2023

​Organizations are complex organisms influenced by many different stakeholders, are affected by environmental influences, and by employees with different abilities and skills. This complex environment requires a stable environment for sustained growth. However, individual perspectives on preferred leadership types can stabilize or destabilize required harmony. Suppose personal preference is placed on incorrect qualities (e.g., a sensitive but not intelligent leader, a power-hungry, etc.). In that case, the organization will experience stagnation and probably degradation as it will not be conducive to the constantly required learning and innovation in a volatile environment. In this context, if the leader exhibits traits that align with the promotion of collective learning, and the individual employee places emphasis on positive characteristics (e.g., sensitive but intelligent), the employees will be empowered to contribute to the growth and sustainability of the organization. Including the entire team to bring the best ideas forward is the correct way to make a positive change. All this will get us to the point where all employees are equally empowered to make a change and willing to contribute to the collective wisdom in which all people learn and grow.
Constant change requires leaders to be willing to change themselves and learn from their employees and colleagues. This requires empathetic leaders who will ask meaningful questions to which they seek answers, not rhetorical questions. Engagement in deep listening and hearing everybody involved, observing their behaviors, and engaging with the user (employees, customers, etc.) to understand their concerns. The process requires us to synthesize diverse information from all individuals, not only those we perceive as leaders, and to create actionable problem statements that the entire team can get behind and work toward the organizational goal or mission. Humble inquiry and collective imagination of possibilities will enable us to ideate and discover new ways to implement new processes, develop new products, and expand our abilities to promote our organization. Only through the positive engagement of others can we create an environment that can innovate and ensure the organization moves forward. That ability will enable easier prototyping and testing required for the management process changes.
The formal leaders must enable emergent leaders to have a voice and lead and suffocate this perceived leadership competition that the emergent leaders create. A formal leader must work to identify emergent talent and ensure that emergent leaders can step up and help others. Organizations must build leadership succession, promote a collaborative environment, and build the next generation of leaders to sustain innovation and changes naturally occurring in the organization. To achieve that, emergent and formal leaders must work towards achieving individual and organizational goals and removing barriers society places on the organization. They need to work collectively to solve these problems and gain the trust of their stakeholders.